Rushlake Media picks up Iffr title.
Philipp Hoffmann’s Rushlake Media has burgeoned its international sales slate with the acquisition of two titles.
Source: Rushlake
Who Am I?
The Cologne-based company has taken world rights (excluding Sub-Saharan Africa) to Who Am I?, which has its world premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) in the Pan-African Cinema Today strand today (Jan 25).
From Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu and co-director Nick Reding, Who Am? is a hybrid documentary and social project that follows the aftermath of the 2007 general elections in Kenya, which divided people among tribal lines. Now, 10 years later, many Kenyans fear that the country is becoming more polarised than ever before.
For the film, the directors used a series of games and interviews to ask children between the ages of 8 and eleven what they understand about discrimination, tribe and religion.
Global Family
Rushlake has also boarded Global Family from Melanie Andernach and Andreas Köhler. The film, which...
Philipp Hoffmann’s Rushlake Media has burgeoned its international sales slate with the acquisition of two titles.
Source: Rushlake
Who Am I?
The Cologne-based company has taken world rights (excluding Sub-Saharan Africa) to Who Am I?, which has its world premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) in the Pan-African Cinema Today strand today (Jan 25).
From Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu and co-director Nick Reding, Who Am? is a hybrid documentary and social project that follows the aftermath of the 2007 general elections in Kenya, which divided people among tribal lines. Now, 10 years later, many Kenyans fear that the country is becoming more polarised than ever before.
For the film, the directors used a series of games and interviews to ask children between the ages of 8 and eleven what they understand about discrimination, tribe and religion.
Global Family
Rushlake has also boarded Global Family from Melanie Andernach and Andreas Köhler. The film, which...
- 1/25/2018
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Now in its second year, Rotterdam’s Big Screen Award Competition aims to support the distribution fo films in Dutch cinemas.
Nominees for this prize are ten new films from Iffr sections Spectrum or Bright Future with no Benelux distributor confirmed at time of invitation. An audience jury chooses the winner.
The award comes with a €10,000 prize for a distributor to support publicity efforts in releasing the winning film in the Netherlands. Last year’s winner was Italian feature Bellas mariposas by Salvatore Mereu.
Also, the Dutch Circle of Film Critics (Knf) will choose another winner from the 10 nominees for the Knf Award.
The full line-up of The Big Screen Award Competition 2014
Another Year, Oxana Bychkova, RussiaLa distancia, Sergio Caballero, SpainIt’s Us, Nick Reding, KenyaJacky au royaume des filles, Riad Sattouf, FranceThe Militant, Manolo Nieto, Uruguay/ArgentinaObvious Child, Gillian Robespierre, USR100, Matsumoto Hitoshi, JapanReimon, Rodrigo Moreno, Argentina/GermanySee No Evil, Jos de Putter, the Netherlands...
Nominees for this prize are ten new films from Iffr sections Spectrum or Bright Future with no Benelux distributor confirmed at time of invitation. An audience jury chooses the winner.
The award comes with a €10,000 prize for a distributor to support publicity efforts in releasing the winning film in the Netherlands. Last year’s winner was Italian feature Bellas mariposas by Salvatore Mereu.
Also, the Dutch Circle of Film Critics (Knf) will choose another winner from the 10 nominees for the Knf Award.
The full line-up of The Big Screen Award Competition 2014
Another Year, Oxana Bychkova, RussiaLa distancia, Sergio Caballero, SpainIt’s Us, Nick Reding, KenyaJacky au royaume des filles, Riad Sattouf, FranceThe Militant, Manolo Nieto, Uruguay/ArgentinaObvious Child, Gillian Robespierre, USR100, Matsumoto Hitoshi, JapanReimon, Rodrigo Moreno, Argentina/GermanySee No Evil, Jos de Putter, the Netherlands...
- 1/27/2014
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2014
Bright Future
World Premieres
Above: The Pinkie
About Sarah (Elisa Miller, Mexico, United Kingdom)
Bella Vista (Vera Brunner-Sung, USA)
Creator of the Jungle (Jordi Morató (Spain)
La distancia (Sergio Caballero, Spain)
Dzma/Brother (Téona Mghvdeladze & Thierry Grenade, France, Georgia)
L’éclat furtif de l'ombre (Alain-Pascal Housiaux & Patrick Dechesne, Belgium, Germany)
Edén (Elise DuRant, USA, Mexico)
Helium (Eché Janga, Netherlands)
History of Eternity (Camilo Cavalcante, Brazil)
Hotel Nueva Isla (Irene Gutiérrez & Javier Labrador, Cuba, Spain)
The Iranian Film (Yassine el Idrissi, Morocco, Netherlands, Egypt)
Jacky au royaume des filles (Riad Sattouf, France)
L for Leisure (Lev Kalman & Whitney Horn, USA, Mexico, France, Iceland)
Little Crushes (Aleksandra Gowin & Ireneusz Grzyb, Poland)
Masked Monkey - The Evolution of Darwin’s Theory (Ismail Fahmi Lubish, Indonesia)
Oilfields Mines Hurricanes (Fabian Altenried, Germany, Iceland)
The Pinkie (Lisa Takeba, Japan)
The Quiet Roar (Henrik Hellström, Sweden, Norway)
Sitzfleisch (Lisa Weber, Austria)
The Songs of Rice (Uruphong Raksasad,...
Bright Future
World Premieres
Above: The Pinkie
About Sarah (Elisa Miller, Mexico, United Kingdom)
Bella Vista (Vera Brunner-Sung, USA)
Creator of the Jungle (Jordi Morató (Spain)
La distancia (Sergio Caballero, Spain)
Dzma/Brother (Téona Mghvdeladze & Thierry Grenade, France, Georgia)
L’éclat furtif de l'ombre (Alain-Pascal Housiaux & Patrick Dechesne, Belgium, Germany)
Edén (Elise DuRant, USA, Mexico)
Helium (Eché Janga, Netherlands)
History of Eternity (Camilo Cavalcante, Brazil)
Hotel Nueva Isla (Irene Gutiérrez & Javier Labrador, Cuba, Spain)
The Iranian Film (Yassine el Idrissi, Morocco, Netherlands, Egypt)
Jacky au royaume des filles (Riad Sattouf, France)
L for Leisure (Lev Kalman & Whitney Horn, USA, Mexico, France, Iceland)
Little Crushes (Aleksandra Gowin & Ireneusz Grzyb, Poland)
Masked Monkey - The Evolution of Darwin’s Theory (Ismail Fahmi Lubish, Indonesia)
Oilfields Mines Hurricanes (Fabian Altenried, Germany, Iceland)
The Pinkie (Lisa Takeba, Japan)
The Quiet Roar (Henrik Hellström, Sweden, Norway)
Sitzfleisch (Lisa Weber, Austria)
The Songs of Rice (Uruphong Raksasad,...
- 1/13/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Picks include the latest documentary from Ai Weiwei [pictured].
The International Film Festival Rotterdam has unveiled the selections for its Bright Future and Spectrum programmes (list of premiere titles below).
Across both sections there are 37 world premieres.
Bright Future is comprised of 63 films, all first and second features. Bright Future includes five films supported by the Hubert Bals Fund, including Carlos Armella’s Las voces.
Five films from Bright Future will compete in the Big Screen Award Competition, including telepathic dwarf thriller La distancia by Sergio Caballero; and Riad Sattouf’s Jacky au royaume des filles starring Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Other notable seelctions include Burrowing director Henrik Helstrom’s second feature The Quiet Roar, about a dying woman who reconnects with her past through an acid trip.
Spectrum, focusing on artistic and experimental cinema, includes 69 films, including three supported by the Hubert Bals Fund. Five Spectrum Films, including Jos de Putter’s See No Evil and Oxana Bychkova’s Another...
The International Film Festival Rotterdam has unveiled the selections for its Bright Future and Spectrum programmes (list of premiere titles below).
Across both sections there are 37 world premieres.
Bright Future is comprised of 63 films, all first and second features. Bright Future includes five films supported by the Hubert Bals Fund, including Carlos Armella’s Las voces.
Five films from Bright Future will compete in the Big Screen Award Competition, including telepathic dwarf thriller La distancia by Sergio Caballero; and Riad Sattouf’s Jacky au royaume des filles starring Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Other notable seelctions include Burrowing director Henrik Helstrom’s second feature The Quiet Roar, about a dying woman who reconnects with her past through an acid trip.
Spectrum, focusing on artistic and experimental cinema, includes 69 films, including three supported by the Hubert Bals Fund. Five Spectrum Films, including Jos de Putter’s See No Evil and Oxana Bychkova’s Another...
- 1/13/2014
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Ni Sisi (It's Us) has been playing in cinemas across Kenya since February early this year. Written and directed by Nick Reding, Ni Sisi, a drama centering on a typical Kenyan community confronting turmoil and violence amongst its members, is screening at the 2013 Durban International Film Festival in South Africa, which runs July 18 – 28, 2013. Produced by the Kenyan Ngo Safe (Sponsored Arts For Education), Ni Sisi hoped to promote a message of identity, personal accountability, unity and peace prior to Kenya's March elections. The film stars Nairobi Half-Life's Joseph K. Wairimu, Jacky Vike and Godfrey Ojiambo. Here's a full synopsis: Ni Sisi portrays a typical Kenyan...
- 7/24/2013
- by Vanessa Martinez
- ShadowAndAct
Title: The First Grader Director: Justin Chadwick Starring: Naomie Harris, Oliver Litondo, Tony Kgoroge, Nick Reding, Vusi Kunene, John Sibi-Okumu How will hardcore birthers (I’m looking in your direction Orly Taitz, though wincing to do so) read dark and sinister intent into the uplifting true story of The First Grader, given that it’s set in Kenya, contains the words “birth certificate” and even, in its closing, winkingly evokes the possibility of someone like Barack Obama, whose ancestors call the country home, rising to the presidency of the United States? Who knows, though I’m sure it may spawn a particularly warped conspiracy theory on some Internet message board somewhere. For the sane among...
- 5/14/2011
- by bsimon
- ShockYa
As a way of celebrating this year's nominees for the Spirit Awards in the weeks leading up to the ceremony, we reached out to as many as we could in an effort to better understand what went into their films, what they've gotten out of the experience, and where they've found their inspiration, both in regards to their work and other works of art that might've inspired them from the past year. Their answers will be published on a daily basis throughout February.
Over the past few weeks, Jennifer Lawrence has complained of the cold, cinematographer Michael McDonough lamented an unforgiving schedule, and Dale Dickey spoke of the challenge of balancing a chainsaw while on a boat. And these were only a few of the obstacles that were overcome under the watchful eye of Debra Granik to make "Winter's Bone" one of the year's most unforgettable films.
That might sound like needless hyperbole,...
Over the past few weeks, Jennifer Lawrence has complained of the cold, cinematographer Michael McDonough lamented an unforgiving schedule, and Dale Dickey spoke of the challenge of balancing a chainsaw while on a boat. And these were only a few of the obstacles that were overcome under the watchful eye of Debra Granik to make "Winter's Bone" one of the year's most unforgettable films.
That might sound like needless hyperbole,...
- 2/24/2011
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
Apart from the Oscars, where else would you find a room full of so many beautiful, glamorous, and talented women? Well, the answer is: at the biennial lunch for African Solutions to African Problems (Asap) hosted by the charity’s founder, Priscilla Higham, in London. Where do we start? Among this year’s table hostesses were Sharleen Spiteri, Jasmine Guinness, Lady Ashcombe, Lady Anne Lambton, Annabel Elliot, Jane Ormsby Gore, Melanie Metcalfe, Rosie Bartlett, Tiggy Kennedy, Maia Norman, Camilla Lowther, and Beatrix Silvano, to name just a few. Such a strong female presence among the 400 guests was no coincidence; they’d been invited to meet “Scilla” Higham and the South African women who inspired the program’s conception. The charity aims to provide support, training, and resources to women who care for orphans and vulnerable children in their home communities, alleviating the affects of H.I.V./AIDS. The lunch...
- 6/25/2010
- Vanity Fair
John le Carre's densely plotted novels, which revolve around espionage, moral corruption and forces of evil at work around the globe, often flounder when transferred to the screen. Plots gets severely truncated and nuances are lost. Filmmakers try to cherry-pick the "cinematic" bits from the stories -- the cloak-and-dagger maneuvers -- but those separate with difficulty from the texture of his characters' lives and the thorough documentation of how rogues, governments and multinational corporations behave.
"The Constant Gardener" is a happy exception. One reason might be the inspired choice of Fernando Meirelles, the Oscar-nominated Brazilian director of "City of God", to bring the story to the screen. His impressionistic, guerilla style of filmmaking works surprisingly well in capturing the hypnotic urgency of le Carre's fiction. And his viewpoint is less British and more Third World. There are awkward moments, given the need to rush through a convoluted plot, and the peripheral characters that never fully come alive. But "The Constant Gardener" gets the essence of the story.
With Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz toplining a work of clear passion, the film looks set for late summer counterprogramming as well as a competitive run with upcoming prestige offerings for Oscar nominations. Boxoffice should be steady though well short of blockbuster status.
The film, like the novel, opens with the death of a major character. Tessa Quayle (Weisz), a tireless political activist, is discovered brutally murdered in a remote area in northern Kenya. Her older husband is Justin (Fiennes), an ineffectual career diplomat attached to the British High Command in Nairobi, mostly concerned with tending his flower garden and keeping up appearances.
Initially, he takes the news with the apparent sangfroid of a true Etonian. Indeed it is Justin's associate, Sandy Woodrow (Danny Huston), who throws up at the sight of Tessa's mutilated body in the morgue, not Justin. Complicating his reaction is an indication that her murder might be a crime of passion: The Kenyan doctor (Hubert Kounde) with whom she was traveling has disappeared and is the chief suspect.
Justin then makes discoveries that could substantiate rumors of other infidelities by his young wife. But what no one in the community of expats in Nairobi counts on is the fierce love this man still has for the woman he scarcely got to know in their brief marriage.
The story moves in a nonlinear way as Justin turns into a mild-mannered bulldog, seeking an explanation for his wife's death. Then, in flashbacks, he examines more closely who his wife was. In the course of his confrontation with things he previously chose not to see, he draws closer to his wife; he understands her point of view, what mattered to her, and comes to love her even more.
This odyssey pulls him into the shady world of multinational pharmaceuticals or "pharmas" as the drug giants are called. These are organizations with enormous resources and economic power, virtual nations onto themselves, who think nothing about testing new drugs in the impoverished Third World.
Justin's investigation into what might have caused someone to order his wife's murder takes him into a scary and sinister terrain, where one feels no safer in the blazing light of day then in the mysterious dark of the night.
He visits Kibera, the largest slum in sub-Saharan Africa. In London, the British government confiscates his passport. He travels to Berlin with a fake passport to interview the scared head of a pharma watchdog group. He returns to Kenya to confront those with blood on their hands, then journeys to Sudan, where refugees live in vile conditions. The journey ends at the strangely beautiful site of his wife's murder.
(For all the criticism of the Kenyan government by the book and the film, the same government allowed the film to shoot in that country.)
The major disappointment comes in Justin's encounters with the crooks, thugs, spies, corrupt businessmen and Her Majesty's mendacious civil servants. These are played by such wonderful actors as Bill Nighy, Pete Postlethwaite, Nick Reding and Gerard McSorley. Yet they are all too familiar types. No doubt perfectly accurate types but le Carre -- adapted here by Jeffrey Caine -- is capable of creating characters with greater subtlety and dimension.
What distracts us from such things is Meirelles' arresting style that creates a vivid sense of place. Working again with cinematographer Cesar Charlone, the director overexposes some scenes, producing a kind of white on white. Meanwhile, in the slums and villages, as with the favela in "City of God", are a riot of deeply saturated colors. The camera jumps and tries to focus, as if a documentary film crew were shooting the film. Editor Claire Simpson keeps the story rushing forward as Alberto Iglesias' soft music, containing hints of African rock, pulsates in the background.
THE CONSTANT GARDENER
Focus Features
Focus Features presents in association with the U.K. Film Council a Potboiler production in association with Scion Films
Credits:
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Screenwriter: Jeffrey Caine
Based on the novel by: John le Carre
Producer: Simon Channing Williams
Executive producers: Gail Egan, Robert Jones, Donald Ranvaud, Jeff Abberley, Julia Blackman
Director of photography: Cesar Charlone
Production designer: Mark Tildesley
Music: Alberto Iglesias
Costumes: Odile Dicks-Mireaux
Editor: Claire Simpson
Cast:
Justin Quayle: Ralph Fiennes
Tessa Quayle: Rachel Weisz
Sandy: Danny Huston
Sir Pellegrin: Bill Nighy
Marcus: Pete Postlethwaite
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 130 minutes...
"The Constant Gardener" is a happy exception. One reason might be the inspired choice of Fernando Meirelles, the Oscar-nominated Brazilian director of "City of God", to bring the story to the screen. His impressionistic, guerilla style of filmmaking works surprisingly well in capturing the hypnotic urgency of le Carre's fiction. And his viewpoint is less British and more Third World. There are awkward moments, given the need to rush through a convoluted plot, and the peripheral characters that never fully come alive. But "The Constant Gardener" gets the essence of the story.
With Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz toplining a work of clear passion, the film looks set for late summer counterprogramming as well as a competitive run with upcoming prestige offerings for Oscar nominations. Boxoffice should be steady though well short of blockbuster status.
The film, like the novel, opens with the death of a major character. Tessa Quayle (Weisz), a tireless political activist, is discovered brutally murdered in a remote area in northern Kenya. Her older husband is Justin (Fiennes), an ineffectual career diplomat attached to the British High Command in Nairobi, mostly concerned with tending his flower garden and keeping up appearances.
Initially, he takes the news with the apparent sangfroid of a true Etonian. Indeed it is Justin's associate, Sandy Woodrow (Danny Huston), who throws up at the sight of Tessa's mutilated body in the morgue, not Justin. Complicating his reaction is an indication that her murder might be a crime of passion: The Kenyan doctor (Hubert Kounde) with whom she was traveling has disappeared and is the chief suspect.
Justin then makes discoveries that could substantiate rumors of other infidelities by his young wife. But what no one in the community of expats in Nairobi counts on is the fierce love this man still has for the woman he scarcely got to know in their brief marriage.
The story moves in a nonlinear way as Justin turns into a mild-mannered bulldog, seeking an explanation for his wife's death. Then, in flashbacks, he examines more closely who his wife was. In the course of his confrontation with things he previously chose not to see, he draws closer to his wife; he understands her point of view, what mattered to her, and comes to love her even more.
This odyssey pulls him into the shady world of multinational pharmaceuticals or "pharmas" as the drug giants are called. These are organizations with enormous resources and economic power, virtual nations onto themselves, who think nothing about testing new drugs in the impoverished Third World.
Justin's investigation into what might have caused someone to order his wife's murder takes him into a scary and sinister terrain, where one feels no safer in the blazing light of day then in the mysterious dark of the night.
He visits Kibera, the largest slum in sub-Saharan Africa. In London, the British government confiscates his passport. He travels to Berlin with a fake passport to interview the scared head of a pharma watchdog group. He returns to Kenya to confront those with blood on their hands, then journeys to Sudan, where refugees live in vile conditions. The journey ends at the strangely beautiful site of his wife's murder.
(For all the criticism of the Kenyan government by the book and the film, the same government allowed the film to shoot in that country.)
The major disappointment comes in Justin's encounters with the crooks, thugs, spies, corrupt businessmen and Her Majesty's mendacious civil servants. These are played by such wonderful actors as Bill Nighy, Pete Postlethwaite, Nick Reding and Gerard McSorley. Yet they are all too familiar types. No doubt perfectly accurate types but le Carre -- adapted here by Jeffrey Caine -- is capable of creating characters with greater subtlety and dimension.
What distracts us from such things is Meirelles' arresting style that creates a vivid sense of place. Working again with cinematographer Cesar Charlone, the director overexposes some scenes, producing a kind of white on white. Meanwhile, in the slums and villages, as with the favela in "City of God", are a riot of deeply saturated colors. The camera jumps and tries to focus, as if a documentary film crew were shooting the film. Editor Claire Simpson keeps the story rushing forward as Alberto Iglesias' soft music, containing hints of African rock, pulsates in the background.
THE CONSTANT GARDENER
Focus Features
Focus Features presents in association with the U.K. Film Council a Potboiler production in association with Scion Films
Credits:
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Screenwriter: Jeffrey Caine
Based on the novel by: John le Carre
Producer: Simon Channing Williams
Executive producers: Gail Egan, Robert Jones, Donald Ranvaud, Jeff Abberley, Julia Blackman
Director of photography: Cesar Charlone
Production designer: Mark Tildesley
Music: Alberto Iglesias
Costumes: Odile Dicks-Mireaux
Editor: Claire Simpson
Cast:
Justin Quayle: Ralph Fiennes
Tessa Quayle: Rachel Weisz
Sandy: Danny Huston
Sir Pellegrin: Bill Nighy
Marcus: Pete Postlethwaite
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 130 minutes...
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